On this page
-
Text (1)
-
326 A STRANGE CHANCE.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
V _ Chapter I. On A Cloudless Morning 1 ...
upon him , and for a moment lie regarded what lie had been doing as rather wild and ridiculous ; he looked for assurance down upon
the child who had been his unconscious inspirer . Its beautiful hair newly smoothed was smiling in the sun , and on its fair innocent
face still beamed that familiar and beloved expression . With a renewed impulse of devotionand a stronger and more resolute
grasping of his purpose , he , set forward with his two little companions .
CHAPTER II . Whijle this was occurring-the sister of George Gilbertbefore
, , alluded to by him , was awaiting his return from his morning' & ramblein their little parlor at the inn . She was sitting near the
window , which received the morning sunbeams aslant , and at her side stood a small mahogany work-table on which was placed a large
glass filled -with freshflo wers ; an intense passion for which was the principal form in which her love of the beautiful expressed
itself . She held some work in her hand as a sort of compromise between idleness and conscientiousnessbut at every two or three
stitches she made a long pause , bending , her face over the flowers and breathing in their sweetnessor looking dreamily at the
, nickering and trembling of the moving leaves of a tree which spread its branches before the window . There was in her face that
brooding as it were of quiet which yet suggested the thought of depth ; her it did not seem calm because the elements were wanting' in her
which make _ujd all the whirlwind and the tempest of life , but because a certain divine stress held them in repose ; her features
themselves possessed nothing remarkable : her figure had reached the development of mature womanhood .
It is necessary to say something further as to the relationship existing between her and George Gilbert . Her mother , a widow ,
had married his father , then a widower , when Elizabeth was some three years old and he about Rye . Each of them were only
children , and no other child was given to the second union of their parents . Brought near each other so young ' , and being sole
playmates , they had grown up together in the most perfect affection of brother and sister , though , in reality , not at all of kin . In time ,
too , the little girl _gradiially lost her real name of Sefton , and came , to be called only by her mother ' s second name of Gilbert , so that no
trace of different parentage remained , save in the personal dissimilarity of George and herself . In the course of time both
parentsdied , and Elizabeth and George continued to live together , the former being dependent on the latter for support . Accepted by
everybody around them as veritable brother and sister , and perfectly satisfied with the untroubled steadfastness of such a
relationship , George Gilbert , though he knew , never thought upon their
real position . But Elizabeth did : at first with vague hopes and
326 A Strange Chance.
326 A STRANGE CHANCE .
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1861, page 326, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011861/page/38/
-